Valve keeper inserter



lApril 27, 1943.l H. A. BERKMAN 2,317,512

VALVE KEEPER INSERTER Filed Aug. 12, k1942 2 sheets-sheetl April 27, 1943. H, A BERKMAN VALVE KEEPER INSERTER Filed Aug. 12, 1942 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Apr. 27, 1943 V AINE KEEPER INSERTER Herbert A. Berkman, Chicago, Ill., assgnor to Zim Manufacturing Company, a corporation of Illinois Application August 12, 1942, Serial No. 454,539

4 Claims.

A common method of holding followers or spring seats on the lower ends of valve stems on internal combustion engines is to it them over divided frustoconical keepers surrounding the stems; the downward pressure of the springs tending to tighten the keepers on the stems. When a valve is to be removed, the follower or spring seat is pushed up by means of a suitable tool, the valve spring being, of course, compressed by this act; the parts of the keeper separate from each other; and the valve may be lifted out. Upon again replacing the valve the keeper must again be inserted to hold the assembly of valve and spring together. The present invention has for its object to produce a simple and novel tool for applying or inserting these keepers quickly and easily whenever it is desired to do so.

The various features of novelty whereby my invention is characterized will hereinafter be pointed out with particularity in the claims; but, for a full understanding of my invention and of its objects and advantages, reference may be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure l is a top plan view of a preferred form of tool embodying my invention, shown closed; Fig. 2 is a View similar to Fig. l, showing the jaws spread apart so as to separate the halves o-f the keeper from each other; Fig. 3 is a section through the tool on a plane at right angles to the hinge axis or the saine; Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 but on a larger scale, illustrating only the outer end of the jaw portion of the tool and showing a keeper in the tool; Figs. 5, 6, 7 and 8 are sections on the same scale as Fig. 4 taken respectively on lines -5, S-6, 'i-l and 8 8 of Fig. l; Fig, 9 is a view showing a fragment of the tool that is holding a keeper on a valve stem while the valve spring and its seat or follower are being held up by a valve lifter; Fig. 1G is a view more or less like Fig. 9, illustrating the conditions that exist after the spring has been released, the keeper-inserting tool has been driven down, and the valve lifter has been removed; and Fig. 1i is a section on line ii-ll of Fig. l0.

In Fig. 9 of the drawings there is shown in detail a common type of motor valve unit and its tappet, together with a fragment of the 4motor block; A representing the valve stem, B the spring seat or follower, C the valve spring, and D the divided frustoconical keeper; E representing the tappet; and F a part of the motor block above which the tappet rises.

The valve stem` keeper.

illustrated has external annular grooves G near its lower end and the keeper has internal ridges or beads that enter these grooves. All of these parts are old and well known and form no part of the present invention, serving only to explain the manner of using the new tool.

My improved tool is shown in detail in Figs. 1 7. The body portion thereof is of the plier type, comprising two long levers i and 2 connected together between their ends by a hinge pin 3. One pair of lever ends serve as jaws and the other two as handles to be grasped in one hand by the user. I prefer to fashion these levers from light steel plate material, making them channel shaped; the flanges of the channels being widened at the hinge joint to prov-ide overlapping ears for the reception of the hinge pin. A sturdy torsion spring 5, surrounding the hinge pin and having its ends bearing against the web portions of the handle sections, tends constantly to hold thejaws closed.

Mounted on the inner side of each jaw, at the free end of the` latter, is a device which cooperates with that on the other jaw to form an expansible holder or socket for a keeper; each holder or socket being in the nature of a clip adapted yieldingly to hold one half of a divided These holders or sockets must be so constructed that keeper sections may be inserted from below, whereas the tool may be freed from a keeper by pushing it down while the keeper remains on a valve stem.

In the arrangement shown, each socket or holder is composed of two similar parts one of which is mounted on the corresponding jaw for limited rocking movements about an axis extending crosswise of the tool while the other is slidable lengthwise of the tool. Each rocking element is a little angle plate one wing of which lies againstthe web of the jaw and is secured thereto by a single rivet 1; this part of the plate being of such size and shape, asbest seen in Fig. 8, that the flanges of the channel-shaped jaw serve as stops to limit the rocking movements to a small angle. The other wing lies at the extreme end of the tool and extends at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the tool. The free end of this second wing is elongated both upwardly and downwardly and is provided with a thin inturned flange 8 at its vertical edge. The slidable section 9 of each socket comprises a part like that just described, except that the wing engaging the web of the jaw is quite long and fits slidably between the flanges of the jaw. Each jaw has ears I0 projecting. from itsV flanges and bent down over the and the keeper.

long wing of its socket member 9. These ears may conveniently be so located as to form stops to limit the sliding movements of the members 9. Thus the transverse wing of each of these latter members may strike against the nearest ears to halt their rearward movements, whereas a flange I I on the inner .end of each long wing may strike the rear ears when moved forward a predetermined distance. The sliding socket sections may be normally held in their forward positions illustrated in Figs. 1-4 of the drawings by springs I2 located behind them in the troughs of the levers. For simplicity of construction the abutment for the rear end of each spring may be a socket I3 formed by properly bending the rear end of a long plate I4 secured in the trough of the 'corresponding jaw and extending between the parts 6 and 9 and the web element of the jaw clear t the front end of the lever.

The seats, proper, for the half keepers are adjacent to the free ends of the short transverse wings of each pair of parts 6 and 9. As best shown in Fig. 4, the areas adjacent to the flanges 8 are flat sectie-ns I5 inclined so as to be tangential to a divided keeper engaged in the tool; the lines of the contact being not far from the plane dividing the keeper and containing the axis of the cone; the larger diameter being at the bot.-

tom. Therefore, when a half keeper is inserted in one of the sockets or clips, from below and with its flat vertical face contracting the flanges 8, it

'will be separated from the other half of the keeper only by the combined thickness of two of these flanges. Then, when the jaws are opened, the two keeper sections may be engaged with a valve stem, diametrically opposite each other, and sufciently interlocked with the stem to prevent relative lengthwise movements between the stem The parts are so proportioned that the sliding socket elements are pushed back slightly when the keeper sections are inserted, thereby allowing the springs to exert a yielding pressure on the keeper parts to hold them in 4their sockets until intentionally released.

It will be seen that permitting one half of each socket or holder to rock, the socket automatically adjusts itself to fit cones of different angles, thereby insuring a satisfactory grip 0n keepers of various tapers.

In Fig. 9 the tool is shown as having just been closed on a valve stem to apply a keeper thereto, the valve spring C and its follower B being held up out of the way by a valve lifter H such, for example, as that illustrated in my prior application Serial Number 444,367, dated May 25, 1942. When the valve lifter is operated to lower the spring and follower, the follower strikes the top of the tool and forces the tool down. Since the keeper is interlocked with the valve stern, it remains up and its upper end enters the bore in the follower before the tool drops below the lower end, thereby insuring that the keeper will be embraced by the follower and be firmly clamped to the valve stem.

I have heretofore said that the free ends of the transverse wings of the sockets extend up and down from the body portions thereof. The upward projection is for the purpose of permitting 'the follower on the valve stem to engage directly 4 with the socket even though a jaw of a valve liftthe thickness of the flanges on the latter tool on4 which the followers rest, engage with the follower before the valve lifting jaw can come into contact with any part of the keeper-inserting tool. The downward extensions I1 are bent laterally to provide the compound socket with a flaring mouth that enables the socket easily to move down around the tappet as shown in Fig. 10. It will also be seen that when the parts are in the relative positions illustrated in Fig. 10, the follower lies so far above the jaws proper of my tool that there was no resistance offered to the removal of the valve lifting tool while the other tool still remained in engagement with the tappet.

It will be seen, as best shown in Fig. 7, that the flanges II have upward projections I9 that rise above the plane of the top of the tool. This enables the user easily to draw the members 9 back either to release a keeper or to expand the sockets for insertion of the keeper sections.

In order to give rigidity to the upward extensions I6 and provide good bearing surfaces for contact with the follower, they are provided with outwardly directed horizontal flanges I8 at their upper ends.

While the operation of the tool has already been described, it should perhaps be pointed out that each keeper section is firmly held by means engaging it throughout its entire length so that it is securely held in proper position until intentionally released. Also, the tangential seats I5 exert a wedging action on each keeper half to press its ilat edges firmly against the adjacent flanges 8.

While I have illustrated and described with particularity only a single preferred form of my invention, I do not desire to be limited to the exact structural details thus illustrated Vand described; but intend to cover all forms and arrangements which come within the definitions of my invention constituting the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a tool to apply two-part sleeve-like keepers to valve stems and which includes two arms the free ends of which are movable from and toward each other: devices mounted on the inner sides of the arms that engage with each other at the limit of the movements of the arms toward each other, said devices being in the form of yieldable clips that are adapted to grip a keeper for carrying it to a valve stem and that can be freed from a keeper by a downward movement of the tool after the keeper has been engaged with a valve stem, the clips projecting a distance above the arms to a point above a gripped keeper to enable them to pass the upper jaw of a valve spring lifter and engage a spring seat resting on that jaw when the jaw is lowered, whereby the clips can be forced down by the spring seat as the same is lowered.

2. In a tool to apply two-part sleeve-like keepers to valve stems and which includes two arms the free ends of which are movable from and toward each other: devices mounted on the inner sides of the arms that engage with each other at the limit of the movements of the arms toward each other, said devices being in the form of yieldable clips that are adapted to grip a keeper for carrying it to a valve stem and that can be freed from a keeper by a downward movement of the tool after the keeper has been engaged with a valve stem, each clip consisting of a stationary section and a movable spring-pressed sectionadapted to be moved away from the stationary section through pressure exerted against the same by a keeper part entering the clip, each clip extending a distance above the upper side of the tool to a point above a gripped keeper, whereby the clips can be forced down by the spring seat as the same is lowered, and the lower end of each clip having a aring mouth to permit ready entry of the tappet below a valve stem when the tool is forced down after seating a keeper on that valve stem.

3. In a tool to apply two-part sleeve-like keepers to valve stems, a body member comprising a pair of levers hinged together between their ends, the arms at one end of the tool being channel shaped with their Webs parallel to the hinge axis of the levers and their flanges directed inwardly and lying in planes at right angles to said axis and forming the top and bottom of the body member, a slide mounted in the trough of each channel and lying flat against the web portion of the corin front of the end sections against which the springs bear and serving as stops to limit theV movements of the slides in one direction, and means secured in said channels beyond the forward ends of said slides cooperating with the forward ends of said slides to form a pair of holders open at the top and bottom and on the inner sides and each adapted to receive and yieldingly hold one of the halves of a keeper in an upright position.

4. In a tool of the character described, a body member comprising two levers hinged together, and sockets on the inner sides of the free ends of corresponding arms of said levers, each socket comprising a pair of flat elements arranged tangentially to a frustoconical surface whose axis is parallel to the hinge axis of the levers; means supporting one of said elements of each pair for rocking movements about an axis extending across the levers, means yieldingly urging the second element of each pair toward its cooperating element, said elements having at their free long edges inturned flanges that lie, when the tool is closed, in about the plane that contains the central longitudinal axis and also the hinge axis of the tool.

HERBERT A. BERKMAN. 

